Ron Elving

Ron Elving is the NPR News' Senior Washington Editor directing coverage of the nation's capital and national politics and providing on-air political analysis for many NPR programs.

Elving can regularly be heard on Talk of the Nation providing analysis of the latest in politics. He is also heard on the "It's All Politics" weekly podcast along with NPR's Ken Rudin.

Under Elving's leadership, NPR has been awarded the industry's top honors for political coverage including the Edward R. Murrow Award from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, a 2002 duPont-Columbia University Silver Baton for excellence in broadcast journalism, the Merriman Smith Award for White House reporting from the White House Correspondents Association and the Barone Award from the Radio and Television Correspondents Association. In 2008, the American Political Science Association awarded NPR the Carey McWilliams Award "in recognition of a major contribution to the understanding of political science."

Before joining NPR in 1999, Elving served as political editor for USA Today and for Congressional Quarterly. He came to Washington in 1984 as a Congressional Fellow with the American Political Science Association and worked for two years as a staff member in the House and Senate. Previously, Elving served as a reporter and state capital bureau chief for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. He was a media fellow at Stanford University and the University of Wisconsin at Madison.

Over his career, Elving has written articles published by The Washington Post, the Brookings Institution, Columbia Journalism Review, Media Studies Journal, and the American Political Science Association. He was a contributor and editor for eight reference works published by Congressional Quarterly Books from 1990 to 2003. His book, Conflict and Compromise: How Congress Makes the Law, was published by Simon & Schuster in 1995. Recently, Elving contributed the chapter, "Fall of the Favorite: Obama and the Media," to James Thurber's Obama in Office: The First Two Years.

Elving teaches public policy in the school of Public Administration at George Mason University and has also taught at Georgetown University, American University and Marquette University.

With an bachelor's degree from Stanford, Elving went on to earn master's degrees from the University of Chicago and the University of California-Berkeley.

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6:03am

It's All Politics

President Obama speaks in Ethiopia. While there, he noted that in the U.S., presidents can't run for more than two terms. But if they could, he said, he'd win.

Mulugeta AyeneAP

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3:45

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President Obama was giving the final speech of his Africa tour, offering a critique of the young democracies on that continent, singling out the all-too-typical practice of leaders overstaying their terms in office.

"When a leader tries to change the rules in the middle of the game just to stay in office, it risks instability and strife," Obama said, aware that the president of Burundi, seated nearby, had recently defied that country's two-term limit.

10:21am

It's All Politics

Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., has caught fire with some on the Democratic left, but, in the end, he may wind up helping Hillary Clinton.

Robert F. BukatyAP

These are palmy days for Sen. Bernie Sanders and his improbable campaign for president. Thousands throng his events in Maine, Iowa and Wisconsin. He has raised $15 million in just a few months, and he polls better among Democrats than any one Republican is polling among Republicans.

At a minimum, the "independent socialist" senator has established himself as the insurgent to watch among Democrats in this cycle. So, we should salute the man. But we should also cast a smiling glance toward the other, possibly ultimate, beneficiary of his early success.

4:29pm

It's All Politics

President Obama had one of the best weeks of his second term. And he has some key Republicans to thank for it.

Evan VucciAP

With his eulogy Friday for the slain pastor and parishioners of "Mother Emanuel" AME Church in Charleston, S.C., President Obama concluded the most shining week of his second term.

The president praised the leadership of South Carolina for its response to the Charleston killings, especially their decision to take down the Confederate battle flag that has long flown either on or next to the state Capitol in Columbia.

"By taking down that flag, we expressed God's grace," the president said. "For too long, we've been blind to past injustices."

5:03am

It's All Politics

Donald Trump waves as he walks offstage after speaking at the Iowa Republican Party's Lincoln Dinner last month.

Charlie NeibergallAP

This post was updated at 12 p.m. ET

The 2016 presidential race has attracted the widest and most diverse field of major candidates in anyone's memory. Yet, even in this crowd, Donald John Trump Sr. stands apart. On Tuesday, he joined that field, two days after his 69th birthday.

Donald Trump, or "The Donald" as he often styles himself, has high national name recognition as a billionaire real estate developer and TV celebrity.

7:37am

It's All Politics

Then-Republican Sen. Lincoln Chafee marching in a parade in Woonsocket, R.I., in 2006.

Darren McCollesterGetty Images

This post was updated at 5:45 p.m. E.T.

Although not nearly so crowded as its Republican counterpart, the Democratic field of presidential contenders is growing. On Wednesday, Lincoln Chafee, a former senator and governor of Rhode Island, became the fourth major politician to enter the White House chase as a Democrat.

9:09am

It's All Politics

Former New York Gov. George Pataki speaks during the Iowa Agriculture Summit in March.

Charlie NeibergallAP

This post has been updated to reflect that Pataki is officially running.

George Pataki announced his presidential candidacy in Exeter, N.H., on Thursday. He's the eighth official Republican entrant in the 2016 race for the White House. The field is expected to double over the next couple of months. Pataki has made numerous visits and a few friends in recent months in the Granite State, home of the first primary in 2016. Still, the mention of his name in most of the country might prompt questions of, "Who?" and possibly, "Why?"